We want people to show an interest in us and to
do things for us. We want people to help
us when we have problems and to rejoice with us
when we have success. We want people to
respect us and show to us that we have great
value. We want people to spend time with
us and to interact with us and
to love us.

Our God also wants for
us to pay attention to Him and
to love, appreciate and respect Him. He wants us
to lift up our prayers to Him and He wants to
give spiritual gifts to us to show His loving
kindness to us. Let's attempt to
understand how to apply the following verses to
pleasing God by loving Him:

Old Testament
Deuteronomy 6:4-5 Hear, O Israel:
Jehovah our God is one. And thou shalt
love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy
strength.

New Testament
Jesus: Mark 12:29-31 Jesus answered,
The first is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our
God, the Lord is One: and thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,
and with all thy strength. The second is
this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself. There is none other commandment
greater than these.

Here is my opinion regarding the human
attributes mentioned in this verse:

Heart: this is where your life is
controlled. It is where your decision
making resides and provides the opportunity to
communicate with God. It
is an interaction between your body, soul
and spirit.
Soul: this is the immaterial part of you
as a person. It includes your mind and the
memories that you have. Your hurts and
your successes are somehow stored within your
soul.Mind: this is where you learn,
think, reason and remember things. It is
an interaction between your soul and your
brain. Strength: This is
our physical strength and mental energy.
We can show our love for God by keeping our mind
and our bodies under control. We should
avoid sin by controlling the passions that we
sometimes have within our bodies. We
should present our body, soul, spirit, mind and
heart to God for His service.

God speaks

God wants to speak to you. Learn how to
listen to His still small voice: I Kings 19:11-12 And He
said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount
before Jehovah. And, behold, Jehovah passed
by, and a great and strong wind rent the
mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks
before Jehovah; but Jehovah was not in the
wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but
Jehovah was not in the earthquake: and after
the earthquake a fire; but Jehovah was not
in the fire: and after the fire a still small Voice.

Read First Kings to
understand the great miracles that Elijah
the prophet accomplished through the power
of the Holy Spirit. God used Elijah to
accomplish His will in the earth and for the
nation of Israel. In the above verses
God shows His power and His sensitivity to
Elijah. God wanted a more personal
relationship with Elijah and He showed
Elijah how He would accomplish it: through a
Voice that spoke very gently to him.

I believe that this still small voice
is how God wants to interact with us
today. He wants to speak lovingly to
us and He does this through the Holy
Scripture and through the Holy Spirit.
We should speak lovingly back to Him through
our prayers, praise, and
thanksgiving. We should lift up our
needs to Him and ask Him for things that
will help us be more faithful to Him. God
wants us to volunteer to reach out
to Him and to love Him.

Here is how to listen: God speaks very
softly and gently to us--He does not
overpower us. If there is
interference, we will not be able to
hear what He has to say to us. We must
say no to committing sin. We
must next open our hearts to Him. We
do this by studying the Holy Bible and by
prayer and praise for Him and by
accomplishing any good works that He
prepares for us to accomplish. Do
these things and you will be better able to
hear His still small voice.

Sin
in our lives is
like being next to a waterfall. If God
speaks softly to us, it will be almost
impossible to hear what He is saying -- our
sin
can overpower the spiritual side of
our lives. If
we move far from the waterfall, we will have
no trouble hearing what He says to
us. If we confess our sins
to God and distance ourselves from them, we
can then hear the gentle voice of God
lovingly speak to us.Our Heavenly Father. I thank
You that You allow me to speak to You at
this time. I thank You that You have
called me to be one of Your servants and I
appreciate You opening the door to Heaven
to You through the Holy Spirit because of
the righteous acts of Jesus suffering,
dying on the cross, having His blood
cleanse me from all unrighteousness and
rising again after three days from
Sheol. I thank You for the many
blessings that You have bestowed upon me:
the Holy Bible and the Holy Spirit, good
health, a place to live, food to eat,
vehicles for transportation, money to pay
my bills and even vacations. I
especially thank You for the presence of
the Holy Spirit in my life gently
directing me to be righteous and the Holy
Bible to hear Your voice and to show me
how to really live. I thank You for
the trials that are placed in my path; You
help me to overcome any difficulties that
may arise.

I recognize that You are the Creator of
everything: of Heaven and Earth. You
have placed the trees, bushes, flowers,
grass and other things on the earth.
You have placed the creatures in the seas
and rivers, the birds in the air and the
animals in the jungles, mountains and
plains. You have created the
countless galaxies each with
billions of stars and have stretched out
the heavens to put them in their proper
place; You have named all the stars. How
magnificent is Your creation. Your
fingerprints are all over creation;
blessed is Your name.

I now confess my sins to
You. I fail you daily and appreciate
Your forgiveness. I also forgive the
sins of those people that have wronged me
and made me feel bad. I pray that
you will help me to be more faithful today
and to accomplish whatever good works that
You present before me. I can only be
successful in being faithful by Your
presence in my life.

Looking at my backyard I see the
magnificent trees that You have created
and put in place for my enjoyment. I
see the squirrels that are running up and
down the trees and are picking up and
storing hickory nuts for future meals.
Thank You.

Glorious is Your name. I cannot see
you yet, but I know in my heart Your
beauty: shining with Your holy
glory. I long to see You when I am
taken to Heaven. I long to sing
songs of praise to You that describe all
the great things You have
accomplished and are doing and to sing
about Your holiness and
righteousness. I am looking forward
to being completely holy and righteous in
my body, soul and spirit. I thank
You that You will see to it that my
currently sinful nature will be completely
removed.

I pray this prayer through Jesus Christ my
Lord, Savior and King. Amen.

God talks back to us. I have
recently been studying the Book of
Luke. The Savior, Jesus, tells us many
things that we should do and sins that we
should avoid. He shows us how to live
a righteous life by His example and His
commands and encouragement.

God has given His people the Holy Bible to
show us salvation and the discipleship He
expects us to accomplish. He does not
ever change; He is the same today as He was
in the time of Abraham, Moses, Daniel,
David, the time Jesus walked the earth and
during the time of the early church; He is
the same as during the middle ages and
today. His message is the same: He
loves us and expects us to love Him and the
people in our lives and He expects us to
avoid sin and obey Him. By studying
the Holy Bible, we are interacting with Him
and trying to understand what He wants for
us. We respect Him and are showing
love for Him by studying the Holy
Scripture. A life of obeying the Holy
Bible demonstrates that we Love God and this
study must be in-depth. In my opinion
reading a few verses during a weekly Sunday
school class is not enough. We
should study several chapters of the Holy
Bible each day.

Recognize that God is the creator
of the Universe and the Creator of MankindRevelation 4:11
Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God,
to receive the glory and the honor and
the power: for Thou did create all
things, and because of Thy will they
were created.

We are constantly bombarded from the media
with the idea that the sun, the moon, the
earth, the planets, all the stars and
galaxies of the Universe evolved from a "big
bang" from a single point that contained all
of the mass of the Universe. The
astronomers say that this gigantic explosion
took place over 13 billion years ago.
They say that the elements such as carbon,
oxygen, nitrogen, iron and other elements
that are necessary for life came from
exploding stars in the vicinity of the solar
system. These elements were eventually
formed into planets, including the
earth. We
are even told that the elements in
our bodies came from exploding stars
and hence our bodies are composed of
"star stuff".

The Holy Bible tells us in the early
chapters of the Book of Genesis that
Almighty God spoke the sun, the moon, the
stars and the earth into existence.
The Bible tells us that Almighty God spoke
and all life in the sea, in the air, on the
land, including mankind was created.
We should recognize and give thanks to God
for such a wonderful creation that within
six days He simply spoke everything into
existence.

We are constantly told from the media that
mankind evolved from apes. Before that
the apes evolved from simple life
forms. Back to the origins of life:
all life evolved from microbial forms of
life. Thus, mankind has evolved from a
long chain of events back to pond
scum.

We should recognize that Almighty God
created mankind on the sixth day of
creation. We should give thanks to Him
for His brilliance and His plan for mankind:
through faith in Jesus Christ we can live
forever and be with Him to serve Him
forever. In my opinion, it
takes much more faith to believe in the Big
Bang and Evolution than to believe that
Almighty God is the Creator of everything.

Find a picture of a beautiful spiral galaxy
and enjoy it. Then give thanks to God
for His creation of it and how you
appreciate it. Let Him know how
brilliant that He is in speaking the galaxy
into existence and then placing it in deep
space for your enjoyment.

Respect for God's Name

Remember the third commandment:

Exodus 20:3 You shall not take the name
of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord
will not hold him guiltless who takes His
name in vain.

This is one of the most violated of the Ten
Commandments. You hear the name of our God
spoken disrespectfully in movies, in songs, in
TV programs, in sports and you sometimes hear it
used as a swear word on talk shows and when
shopping and even at work.

What we should do regarding the name of God is
to lift His name up and bestow the highest honor
upon it by only speaking His name with the
highest respect. We should remember that
His name is a name above all names and that He
deserves to have His name remembered and spoken
of very reverently.

Enoch

Before the great flood described in Genesis
there is little love and faith demonstrated by
mankind. Most of the early part of the
Book of Genesis just stated "who begat
who." When we come to the person of Enoch,
the Bible describes a man that would open his
life up to God:

Genesis 5:18-24 And
Jared lived a hundred sixty and two years,
and begat Enoch: and Jared lived after he
begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat
sons and daughters: And all the days of
Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years:
and he died. And Enoch lived sixty and
five years, and begat Methuselah: and Enoch
walked with God after he begat Methuselah
three hundred years, and begat sons and
daughters: 23 and all the days of Enoch were
three hundred sixty and five years: and Enoch walked with God:
and he was not; for God took him. We are not told in these verses what this
walk between God and Enoch was all about.
We are not told the conversation between the
two; we are only told that there was something
special that happened when God and Enoch had a
genuine fellowship and spent time
together. This perhaps included a literal
walk. God would meet with Enoch and they
would have a conversation: this built the
relationship between the two. I believe
that Enoch loved God because he would slow down
and attempt to understand what God was all about
because Enoch saw the goodness, holiness and
purity of God. Enoch saw that God
continued to encourage him to avoid evil and to
do good works that perhaps helped other
people. God told Enoch that He loved him
and Enoch told God that he loved Him and greatly
appreciated His presence in his life.
After some time having this walk, God decided to
take Enoch out of this world. Enoch is one
of only two people mentioned in the Holy Bible
that did not die; the other is Elijah. I
believe that God took Enoch to Heaven to be with
Him and to serve Him. We are not told, but
perhaps Enoch is the first human to receive an
eternal sinless and perfect body.

My walk is to spend time in fellowship with God,
and it is part of my daily life. I will be
mowing the lawn and I sense the presence of God
there. I will just give Him thanks for His
presence and then allow thoughts about the great
things God has already accomplished to be in my
mind. I will sometimes wake up during the
night and at those times I will lift up praise
to Him and give thanks to Him for His presence
in my life.

Lord, thank you for being with me while I am
mowing my yard. I praise You because You
are holy and pure. I trust You because
You are perfectly reliable and always
accomplish what You say you will do. My
life is lifted up because of Your presence
with me. Thank You for being my God.

Lord, in various astronomy books I see
pictures of distant galaxies and star clusters
in the Milky Way galaxy and I thank You for
Your creativity. You have stretched out
the Heavens and placed each of the heavenly
bodies in the exact place they should be and
You have named each star. Thank You for
allowing me to see some of Your creation and
to appreciate what you have created for me and
others. You are the Great Architect of
all that exists. Praise be unto Your Name
forever, Amen.

What about your Neighbor?

We are commanded by God to love our neighbors:

Leviticus
19:18 Thou shalt not take vengeance, nor
bear any grudge against the children of
thy people; but thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself: I am Jehovah.

Who are your
neighbors? I'll give you my opinion: it's
the neighbors that live around where you
live. It's the people that you work
with. It's your relatives: your spouse if
married, your children, your grandchildren, your
parents, your grandparents, your aunts, uncles
and cousins. It's all those people you
come in contact with.

Your neighbors are especially those in your
church. You may see them in Bible studies,
in worship services and while doing some
ministry within your church. You may have
them over to your house for a dinner and perhaps
to spend some time together. You should
listen to them when they have problems and you
should rejoice with them when they have
success. You should regularly pray for
them and ask God to help them with their
problems and concerns.

Your neighbors are also those that may not be
very friendly towards you; even those that might
insult you. Remember what Jesus said:

Luke 6: 27-35 But I say
unto you that hear, Love
your enemies, do good to them that
hate you, bless them that curse you, pray
for them that despitefully use you. To
him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer
also the other; and from him that
taketh away thy cloak withhold not thy coat
also. Give to every one that asketh
thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods
ask them not again. And as ye would
that men should do to you, do ye also to
them likewise. And if ye love them
that love you, what thank have ye? For even
sinners love those that love them. And
if ye do good to them that do good to you,
what thank have ye? For even sinners do the
same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope
to receive, what thank have ye? Even sinners
lend to sinners, to receive again as
much. But love your enemies, and do
them good, and lend, never despairing; and
your reward shall be great, and ye shall be
sons of the Most High: for He is kind toward
the unthankful and evil.

Kind of difficult to obey these verses, isn't
it? However, note that Jesus will be very
pleased with you if you love and pray for your
enemies.

My Heavenly Father, I was driving to
the store to pick up a few items and another
driver tailgated my car and was impatient
because I drove the speed limit. I pray
that you help him and bless him according to
Your will. Through Jesus Christ my Lord,
Amen.

Draw near to
God

James 4:8 Draw
near to God, and He will draw near
to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners!
And purify your hearts, double
minded ones.

The scripture cannot lie. If you
confess your sins (I John 1:9) and turn
from them, and pray, praise and
fellowship with God He will draw close
to you and will fellowship with
you. You just need to reach up to
Him in faith. At this moment, re-read
the above verse and then offer a prayer
of praise and thanksgiving to God.

What about suffering?

It is my opinion that many Christians suffer
needlessly. God wants to fellowship
with us and we should take the initiative in the
relationship. If we avoid prayer and
fellowship and then sin, He might just put us on
our backs through physical or emotional
pain. We will then look up from our bed of
affliction and then lift up our prayers to ask
Him to relieve our suffering and many times He
just does relieve us of our pain.
Now God has a plan for each of His servants and
pain might be part of that plan. It is my
opinion that if
we love and fellowship with and serve God I
believe that we will have less suffering and
less pain in our lives. I believe that
instead of pain, this fellowship with God
will result in:

Galatians 5:22-23
But the Fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, meekness,
self-control; against such there is no
law.

Do you blame God for something?

I have heard from some Christians: Why did
He let my wife get cancer? Why did He
allow all those people in Africa die of
hunger because their crops failed? Why
did he allow me to lose my job? Why
did He allow my daughter to get hooked on
drugs?

We are not told the plan that God has for
our lives. We don't always understand
why there is mental, emotional or physical
suffering we might be going through.
However, Almighty God is infinitely wise and
He knows exactly what events need to take
place in our lives.

We should not complain about any kind of
suffering we might experience or see
happening in the world. During our trial we
should lift up prayers to God for His help
in overcoming any of our difficulties.
During these times we should give thanks for
His presence in our lives and praise Him for
being so good to us.

God has already designed a plan for each of
His followers:

Proverbs 16:9 A
man's heart devises his way; But Jehovah
directs his steps.Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have
for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you
and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and
a future.

Let's don't complain and blame God for our
difficulties. He knows what is best for
you. Try to understand each day God's plan for
you.

What if
you don't love God and don't love your
neighbor?

There are serious consequences for a Christian
that does not love God and does not love his
neighbor. The Church at Ephesus of the
first century is an example for Christians of
today. It sinned greatly because it failed
in continuing to love God and its members and
its neighbors:

Revelation 2:1-7 To the
angel of the church in Ephesus write: These
things saith He that holdeth the seven stars
in His right hand, He that walketh in the
midst of the seven golden candlesticks: I
know thy works, and thy toil and patience,
and that thou canst not bear evil men, and
didst try them that call themselves
apostles, and they are not, and didst find
them false; and thou hast patience and
didst bear for My names sake, and hast not
grown weary. But
I have this against thee, that thou didst
leave thy first love.
Remember therefore whence thou art fallen,
and repent and do the first works; or else I
come to thee, and will move thy candlestick
out of its place, except thou repent.
But this thou hast, that thou hatest the
works of the Nicolaitans, which I also
hate. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
To him that overcometh, to him will I give
to eat of the tree of life, which is in the
Paradise of God.

Note that the works of the Church in Ephesus
were good: they worked faithfully for God and
would not allow evil men in their midst and had
great patience and did not fail. However,
note that they left their first love:
this is love of God and love of their fellow
Christians and their neighbors. Jesus
warns them that they need to return to loving
God and their neighbors and members. If
they did not do this, He told them that He would
remove their candlestick from its place; this
means that this church would cease to
exist. It is my hope that the members of
this church did repent and did listen to and
heed what Jesus said to them.

Note that the following verses describe the
judgment of the works of Christians:

I Corinthians 1:10-15
According to the grace of God which was
given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder I
laid a foundation; and another buildeth
thereon. But let each man take heed how he
buildeth thereon. For other foundation
can no man lay than that which is laid,
which is Jesus Christ. But if any man
buildeth on the Foundation gold, silver, costly
stones,
wood, hay, stubble; each mans
work shall be made manifest: for the
day shall declare it, because it is revealed
in fire; and the fire itself shall prove
each mans work of what sort it is. If any
man's work shall abide which he built
thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be
burned, he shall suffer loss: but he
himself shall be saved; yet so as through
fire.

Gold, silver, precious stones. They
include the fellowship between God and a
believer and the fellowship between a Christian
and his neighbors and all
good works that a faithful Christian will
produce in their lives..

Wood. These are the most serious
sins that a Christian can commit. In my
opinion the worst sin is to not obey the Love
Your God and Love your neighbor
commandments mentioned earlier. Because of
not obeying these verses, a Christian will not
have the fruit of the Spirit appear in their
lives which include: love, joy, peace, long
suffering, kindness, goodness faithfulness,
humility, and self control as
mentioned in the Galatians verses above.
Here is a warning from the Savior, Jesus about not
obeying the two great love commandments:

John
15: 1-6 I am the true vine, and My
Father is the vine dresser.Every branch in Me
that does not bear fruit, He takes
away; and every branch that
bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may
bear more fruit.You
are already clean because of the word
which I have spoken to you.Abide
in Me, and I in you. As the branch
cannot bear fruit of itself unless it
abides in the Vine, so neither can you
unless you abide in Me.I
am the Vine, you are the branches; he
who abides in Me and I in him, he bears
much fruit, for apart from Me you can do
nothing.If anyone does not
abide in Me,he is thrown away as a
branch and dries up; and they gather
them, and cast them into the fire and
they are burned.

Jesus
expects for His disciples to bear fruit
which is the Fruit of the Spirit as
mentioned in Galatians. This fruit
comes as a result of loving God and
obeying Him and loving your
neighbor. The
Christian that does not bear fruit as commanded
by Jesus is the branch that Jesus
removes from His vine. I believe that this
is the wood mentioned in the I
Corinthians verses given above. At
judgment time, the unfaithful Christian will be
cast into the Lake of Fire and their "wood" will
burn longer than the hay and stubble mentioned
in the I Corinthian verses and will make the
fire of judgment even hotter.

The unfaithful Christian will also not show
an interest in the welfare of the people
that they come across during their
lifetime. This will include not
honoring their father and mother and not
forgiving the sins of others that
have been committed against them.
A Christian that puts anything or anyone
ahead of God is also building works of
wood. This could include
worshiping false gods such as the love
of money and acquiring money, power and
fame.

Hay and
Stubble. There are other sins covered in
the Ten Commandments that a Christian can
commit. These other sins will also include pride
and being self-centered, gossiping and
complaining. All of these sins will be
removed from an unfaithful Christian's life
during their time spent in the Lake of
Fire. These
sins could also include watching too
much TV and displaying sinful
information such as pornography on
the Internet. Many of the
stories in movies, in DVDs, on the
TV and web pages on the Internet are
sinful and contain little or no
wisdom.

Christians of today should evaluate
to see if they are indeed loving God
and their neighbors. Are you
treating our God with the utmost
respect and love and spending time
with Him praying to Him? Are
you lifting up your needs and
concerns to Him, praising Him and
giving thanks for His direction in
your life? Are you telling Him that
you appreciate and love Him?
Are you paying attention to and
praying for your fellow church
members and anyone else that God
places in your life? Are you
showing love for the lost people you
know about in your neighborhood and
in your church and in the world?

Love Covers our sin

I Peter 4:7
-97 But the end of all things is
at hand: be ye therefore of
sound mind, and be sober unto
prayer: above all things being
fervent in your love among
yourselves; for love
covereth a multitude of sins:
using hospitality one to another
without murmuring.

God expects us to be righteous and
holy, avoid evil and do good works
that glorify Him. This verses
does not say that we have a license
to sin. It does say that if we
love our church members, that this
love wipes away our sin. It is
my opinion that if we obey the love
commandments that we will sin less
and thus please our God. When
we love our fellow church members
our sins will somehow be
covered over from being seen by our
God. He will remove these sins
from our lives.

You can possibly commit other sins spoken of in
the Holy Bible. However, not
loving God and not loving your neighbor are
the worst sins that can be committed.
If you love someone, won't you pay attention
to them and let them know that they have
great value and are appreciated by
you? If you love God and pay attention
to Him, He will show additional love and
kindness to you.

Keeping Christ's
Commandments

Because
of your love for Jesus, you will
keep His commandments:

John
14:15 If you love Me, you will keep My
commandments.

These commandments are everything that Jesus
spoke that are given in the four
Gospels. He expects more of
His disciples than obeying the Ten
Commandments. He expects us to cut off
sin before it even happens. These are
sins that originate in our minds:

Matthew 5:27-28 Ye
have heard that it was said, Thou shalt
not commit adultery: but I say unto you,
that every one that looketh on a woman
to lust after her hath committed
adultery with her already in his heart.

If a man sees a woman that could possibly
cause lust in his heart, he should quickly
turn away and to ask God to help him refrain
from any lust. If he does this, God
will help him and God will be pleased with
this discipline that he shows.

Leviticus
5:9-10 Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto
them (false gods), nor serve them; for I,
Jehovah, thy God, am a jealous God, visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children, and upon the third and upon the
fourth generation of them that hate Me; and
showing loving
kindness unto thousands of them that love
Me and keep My commandments.

Worshiping false gods is showing disrespect for
our God and hence you don't love God if you
commit this sin. If you are faithful to
God, He will show loving kindness to you.
God spoke these verses and He means to fulfill
them.

Love is most important

I Corinthians
13:1-13 If I speak with the tongues of men
and of angels, but have not love, I am become
sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.
And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know
all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I
have all faith, so as to remove mountains,
but have not love, I am nothing. And
if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor,
and if I give my body to be burned, but have
not love, it profiteth me nothing.
Love suffereth long, and is kind; love
envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is
not puffed up, doth not behave itself
unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not
provoked, taketh not account of evil;
rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but
rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all
things, believeth all things, hopeth all
things, endureth all things. Love
never faileth: but whether there be
prophecies, they shall be done away; whether
there be tongues, they shall cease; whether
there be knowledge, it shall be done
away. For we know in part, and we
prophesy in part; but when that which is
perfect is come, that which is in part shall
be done away. When I was a child, I
spake as a child, I felt as a child, I
thought as a child: now that I am become a
man, I have put away childish things.
For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then
face to face: now I know in part; but then
shall I know fully even as also I was fully
known. But now abideth faith, hope,
love, these three; and the greatest of these
is love.

Paul says that there are three
extremely important actions that a follower of
Christ can have: faith, hope and love. These are the
actions that a Christian must have to please
God. We must have all three qualities if we
are to counted as Christ's most faithful
followers. In my opinion to be counted as a
member of the Bride of Christ, a Christian must have
love for God the Father: Yahweh, God the Son: Jesus
Christ, the Holy Spirit of God and for other
Christians and those people that come across your
path during your lifetime: your neighbors.

Paul tells us that when Jesus Christ returns to the
earth, establishes His Kingdom and becomes King of
the world and rules over the earth for a thousand
years, then things will change. Right now,
Christians need faith to believe that whatever Jesus
says in the Holy Bible will come true. We believe
every word, every phrase, every paragraph, every
book of the Holy Bible and we have hope that our
faith will prove true during our time on the
earth. We have great comfort in believing that
Jesus will return and change us from being sinful
human beings to becoming perfectly holy and
righteous. Through any sufferings in our lives
we have faith that Jesus will make all things
perfect.

Now the great prize: love triumphs. This is
the Godly love that He will give to all of His
believers that ask Him. We will then fulfill
the two great love commandments given to us in both
the Old and New Testaments. We will serve God,
praise Him and give thanks to Him forever.
This worship is mentioned in:

Revelation 4:2-11
Straightway I was in the Spirit: and behold,
there was a throne set in heaven, and one
sitting upon the throne; and he that sat was to
look upon like a jasper stone and a sardius: and
there was a rainbow round about the throne, like
an emerald to look upon. And round about
the throne were four and twenty thrones: and
upon the thrones I saw four and twenty elders
sitting, arrayed in white garments; and on their
heads crowns of gold. And out of the
throne proceed lightnings and voices and
thunders. And there was seven lamps of fire
burning before the throne, which are the seven
Spirits of God; and before the throne, as it
were a sea of glass like a crystal; and in the
midst of the throne, and round about the throne,
four living creatures full of eyes before and
behind. And the first creature was like a
lion, and the second creature like a calf, and
the third creature had a face as of a man, and
the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. And
the four living creatures, having each one of
them six wings, are full of eyes round about and
within: and they have no rest day and night,
saying, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God, the
Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.
And when the living creatures shall give glory
and honor and thanks to him that sitteth on the
throne, to him that liveth for ever and ever,
the four and twenty elders shall fall down
before him that sitteth on the throne, and shall
worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and
shall cast their crowns before the throne,
saying, Worthy art thou, our Lord and our God,
to receive the glory and the honor and the
power: for thou didst create all things, and
because of thy will they were, and were created.We will still have faith
and hope, but they will be complete.
We will know with certainty that when God says
something will happen--it will happen exactly as
He says. In eternity, we will be perfect
in body, soul and spirit; we will worship and
serve Him forever.

What about you?

If you are currently having fellowship with God and
loving Him, then He is very pleased with you.
If you are not currently having fellowship with Him
and loving Him, then I suggest that you begin this
fellowship with Him today. First get down on
your knees and first confess your sins to Him and
ask God to help you to say "no" to any temptations
that might occur for you. Next give thanks for
His presence in your life. Then praise Him for
His many gifts He gives to you: these could include
touching your soul with His love for you. Give
thanks to Him for the righteous works that Jesus
completed during His time on the earth: especially
His suffering and dying on the cross and shedding
His blood for the forgiveness of your sins and
rising from the dead on the third day. Ask Him
to direct your life. Show extra kindness to your
neighbors and take an interest in them.

Then, continue with this fellowship the rest of your
life. Discipleship is not just for one time,
one day. It should be present in your life for
the rest of your life. Open up your Bible
daily and try to understand what God is saying to
you. He will be very pleased with you if you
obey His holy scripture.